Whirlpool
by Lucency
Summary: The first time he saw Mito Uzumaki, he fainted. [SI OC]
1. Inland Sea

Utsumi Uzumaki knew that her son was different.

 _Maybe_ if she didn't also have a daughter, the way he acted wouldn't have stood out so much. _Maybe_ if he wasn't an Uzumaki, she could have fooled herself into thinking that he was a perfectly normal baby. _Maybe-_ Utsumi blew a wayward strand of red hair out of her face, tilting her head back against the wall. Thinking in _maybes,_ and _what ifs_ wasn't going to suddenly change anything. Besides, it would only give Himuro more ammunition to tease her with.

He thought she was worrying too much. _'You're expecting too much from him, Utsu. He's only six months old'._ But he didn't pay as much attention as she did. Her little girl had come into the world kicking and screaming with all the fire of an Uzumaki. Where Kushina was the whirlwind, the storm that the medics only stood their ground against after years of dealing with dozens of other little whirlwinds, Kiunno was the silence that followed, the aftermath of a bad storm. The medics were the survivors, not sure of what they were supposed to do with the sudden and total absence of noise.

Kiunno didn't cry when he was born. Not during, or even minutes afterwards. For an Uzumaki, that had raised about a dozen red flags. It was only when one of the very-concerned medics tried to use medical chakra on him to see if anything was wrong did he make his first sound. Kiunno didn't just cry, he _shrieked_ in agony. The medic had jerked her hands back and backed away quickly, but he hadn't stopped. Utsumi didn't remember much after that. She remembered the red, burning rage that consumed her, and the abrupt, overwhelming urge to drag herself out of bed and strangle the medic for _daring to hurt her child._

When she came back to herself, Himuro had been there, holding an unsealed kunai against the medic's throat. He had looked at the medic like she was an enemy ninja rather than one of their clansmen. The other medic had restrained Utsumi, her hands firmly pinning her shoulders to the bed while she calmly explained something about extreme chakra sensitivity and overdeveloped pathways that Utsumi didn't listen to. Her eyes had been on her husband, who after frantic arm waving from the medic seemed to believe she didn't do whatever she'd done on purpose and let her go. Himuro had done his best to calm Kiunno down as the medic scrambled away, but he didn't stop crying until everyone in the room suppressed their chakra. It was only then that they started to hear Kushina's loud, frightened cries, which Kiunno had completely drowned out.

That was how they learned that Kiunno was sensitive to chakra, and why Himuro, despite many, _many,_ apologies, was still banned from the hospital.

Utsumi never wanted to hear him make that sound again.

For months, Kiunno was oddly, scarily silent. He didn't cry when he had a full diaper, or when he wanted to be fed, and that terrified Utsumi. She took him back to the hospital once, after two full months of this, but since she refused to let the medic use chakra on him, there was only so much he could tell from just physically looking over him. She hadn't even known that she was going to stop the medic until his glowing hand hovered an inch above her son's chest, and her voice had acted on its own and shouted at him to stop. She had been afraid for Kiunno and anyone unfortunate enough to be in the same room as her if he made _that sound_ again.

After that, she slept on a blanket on the hard, cold wood floor of their room more often than her own bed just so she could hear him breathing. She often held his still body in her lap just to feel his tiny heartbeat against her leg.

Himuro had worried too, in his own way. He hid it behind nervous smiles and laughter that was just a little too loud and expressed it through playful pokes at Kiunno's cheeks and tickling him in a way that always sent Kushina into a fit of giggles. When that didn't work, he showed it by pacing back in forth in their small kitchen in the middle of the night for hours when he thought that she was asleep.

It was almost worse that Kushina was the exact opposite.

Kushina had done everything in her power to be reclassified as a tornado. Utsumi learned quickly that she had three choices when it came to her little whirlwind. Calm the storm before it became a destructive force, weather it until it tired itself out, or find a bunker to hide in and stay out of the way of the devastation.

Her little whirlwind was constantly offended by the world and showed it through flailing limbs and screaming her head off. She let them get so little sleep that Himuro once resorted to dropping to his knees in front of her crib and clasping his hands in front of him in prayer. He had prayed to his fickle goddess, only half-playfully begging her to let him get just an hour of sleep. Utsumi had been half-tempted to join him in his worship, too exhausted to even crack a smile. Her little whirlwind made her feel a new respect for her own mother, while simultaneously making her feel like she should profusely apologize on her and her sister's behalf.

Kiunno didn't open his eyes until he was five months old.

It happened abruptly, like facing an enemy-nin that only used ninjutsu and being suddenly thrown into a genjutsu. Seeing Kiunno's eyes open felt like a false reality to Utsumi, and took her almost a full minute of staring for her to believe what her eyes told her when she looked in his crib. One day, he was motionless, a statue carved out in the shape of a baby. The next he was trying to fit the entirety of his fist in his mouth while at the same time using his free hand to play with his tiny toes.

Once the shock had worn off, Utsumi felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. She couldn't help but think of Himuro's increasingly desperate attempts to make light out of their situation, _'It's just a phase, Utsu. It'll pass',_ and was overjoyed by the thought that he was right. When she told Himuro, he was so ecstatic that he had immediately picked Kiunno up and spun him around in a happy circle, cheering loudly enough to wake up Kushina. Utsumi would never forget the way Kiunno had smiled for the first time around his fist, as if he wasn't sure what was going on but was still entertained by it, and that his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. She wished she _didn't_ remember the way he had stared at Himuro with a deep level of awareness, like he wasn't just looking at him, but _studying_ him.

When she tried to bring it up later, after finally, _finally_ wrestling their whirlwind to sleep, Himuro had shrugged off her concern with a light, forced laugh. She hadn't brought it up again since it was clear that he hadn't seen it; maybe he didn't _want_ to see it.

Utsumi noticed that look again when she put Kushina in the same crib as Kiunno for the first time. She hoped that some of her excess energy would rub off on him. She hadn't wanted another whirlwind exactly—the bags under her eyes deepened at the thought—but she _had_ been afraid that she would wake up one morning and Kiunno would be lifeless again. She tried to do anything she could think of to convince him to be less quiet and still. Utsumi saw it right after she put Kushina down. Kiunno's eyes had lingered on her for just a little too long, and she caught a glimpse of that same _awareness_ hidden in their depths. Her little whirlwind had been instantly excited by his company, babbling a mile a minute at him, but Utsumi could immediately tell that he wasn't paying attention to any of her baby-talk.

Instead, he hadn't just stared at her, he'd _studied_ her like he was actively _searching_ for something. It had been almost eerie when Kushina finished her one-sided conversation and they were left staring at each other in complete silence. Her eyes were filled with innocence and delight, while his were intense and intelligent. Seeing the clear difference between them had made her uneasy, but she hadn't been given any time to think too much about it. After only a few seconds the whirlwind in the room decided that she had enough of his silence, and decided to break it by rolling over and attempting to smother her brother.

Kiunno had made a startled, strangled noise during the second before Utsumi rescued him, and later, she would marvel—and Himuro would laugh at—the fact that it took a near-death experience to get him to make even the slightest of sounds.

That had also been the first time that Utsumi let herself acknowledge that Kiunno was different. Before, she had been drowning in so much worry and fear for him that the only thing keeping her together was to _not_ think too deeply about her son. Her old worries had been replaced by new ones, but the fear was gone and that left room in her head to think, to _see_ even though she didn't want to.

Then Utsumi started noticing other things too.

Whenever Utsumi put them in the same crib after what their whirlwind had almost done to him, Kiunno would immediately roll as far away from Kushina as he possibly could. He stopped looking at her with those intense eyes of his. Instead, he had always stared at her with wariness, like he _remembered_ their first encounter which… shouldn't have been possible. He was an infant. He shouldn't have been capable of remembering _anything,_ and yet Utsumi couldn't deny what she'd seen.

Kiunno wouldn't play with Himuro or Kushina. No matter how much Himuro beckoned or made silly faces at him, he was content to lay almost perfectly still on the floor and watch them. He wouldn't move as Himuro rolled around on the floor to entertain Kushina, or when he had her roaring with laughter. He'd just watch with those bright, curious eyes as if he were watching a group of strangers put on a play for him. The only time he had ever moved while they played had been when Himuro had tickled his feet to try and force a reaction out of him, but his effort had only been rewarded with movement so small it couldn't even be considered squirming, or one of Kiunno's strange, entertained smiles. Himuro always either laughed his strange behavior off or never acknowledged any of it.

And still, above it all was the fact that Kiunno never once cried.

Utsumi snapped out of her thoughts when she felt a hand tugging on her sleeve. She blinked down into the dark brown eyes of her sister's oldest son, Souta. Even though he was only thirteen, he was already capable enough to suppress his chakra at will. His hair was a dark shade of red, more so than most of the clan. His other hand was wrapped around his little brother, who hid his face in his shoulder as he sniffled.

Souta caught her looking and dropped his hand, adjusting his grip around the infant. "It's okay," he began before she could ask. "Kushi's just not very nice."

"Ah," Utsumi said, trying not to smile. "What did she do?"

Souta made a face. "She bit him." He shook his head, his ponytail swinging back and forth behind him. "But I wanted to ask about Ki."

Utsumi's smile disappeared, and she couldn't help but feel a small trickle of dread at what his question might be. _Why doesn't he ever cry? Why does he stare at me all the time? Why won't he play with me-_

"Why is his skin so red?" He asked.

She stared at him in surprise and for an instant her mind went blank. Of all the possible questions about Kiunno, _that_ one was near the bottom of her mental list. Souta bent down in the silence that followed and lowered his brother to the floor, only for him to sit stubbornly on his sandal and cling to his ankle. "He scratches himself a lot, Sou. It's nothing to worry about," she said as she regained her composure.

"Does he have a rash?" Souta's eyes were wide, worrying anyway.

Utsumi smiled at him, flicking away stray strands of his hair. "What did I just say?"

"Is he sick?" His eyes grew wider.

"No and no. Stop worrying." Her voice was mock stern, but the truth was that Utsumi didn't have an answer. Neither she nor Himuro could figure out why he was doing it, and holding his hands away from his body was the only way to make him stop. Utsumi moved around Souta and peeked into their room, looking at each crib. The whirlwind was kicking and clawing at the air, demanding her next victim, while, sure enough, Kiunno was scratching his fingers, staring intensely at the back of his palm.

A loud, pitiful cry shattered the silence and they both looked down at the baby attached to his leg. He was looking up at them with big, round eyes as if asking them why he wasn't getting the attention he deserved. Souta sighed and bent down. Utsumi looked back at Kiunno again, and then she closed her eyes. Her earlier thoughts returned, and she thought again of what Himuro used to say about it all being a phase that would pass one day.

She could only hope.

* * *

 **A/N** : I'm going to do this thing, where I recommend a story each chapter that I think deserve a read.

It Ends At Dawn by KannaKyomu


	2. Comb

Kushina stood on her tip-toes as she peeked over the top of the kitchen counter, trying to make herself tall enough to see over the rim of a large wooden bowl. The bowl briefly tilted towards her as Mama started stirring again and she just barely caught a glimpse of batter sloshing around before the bottom of the bowl was at eye-level again. Hopping up and down didn't help her see any better either.

"Kushina?"

She looked up into warm brown eyes. "Yes, Mama?"

"You think you can go and bring Kiunno back here? I think he would want this." Her eyes moved up to the dripping spoon, and then back to the mischievous sparkle in her eyes.

Kushina only shook her head. "But he's…" She barely started to turn around when she saw the empty chair behind her. She blinked and looked back at Mama with wide, surprised eyes, wondering how she noticed that he was missing without ever turning around. Then they narrowed. "I'll find him," she said seriously.

Mama lowered the spoon, her eyes suddenly solemn. "I know you will, little whirlwind," she said gravely. She wiped the flour on her other hand off on her blue apron and then squeezed Kushina's shoulder tightly.

Kushina gave her one last, long look before setting off down the hall. She made it a point to ignore the muffled laugh behind her. Kushina shoved the door to their room open, only to stop short at the sight of her twin half-way out their only window. The chair on her side of the room had been pushed up against the wall, and the fresh scrape marks on the floor on her side of the room told a tale of the future punishment that awaited him. Her eyes went back to the chair and stuck on her pillow, being used as a cushion under his feet.

Using her chair as a stool was one thing, but stepping on her _pillow?_ That was crossing the line. Her hands balled into fists. "Hey!"

Kiunno stopped, turning to look at her like he wasn't sitting on the windowsill. He blinked, followed her gaze down to the chair, and blinked again. "Oh," he said softly, as if he hadn't known exactly what he was doing.

"You're gonna pay for that, you know!" She shouted.

He didn't seem all that threatened. His stare moved to a spot above her head and lingered there, which made Kushina suddenly think that there was probably flour in her hair. She swiped at the top of her head with both hands and small bits of white powder rained down around her. "Hmph." She crossed her arms. If he thought that that made up for her ruined pillow, he was wrong. She refused to consider the fact that if he hadn't pointed it out she would have spent the rest of the day not knowing. Mama never told her if there was anything in her hair. She thought it made her look 'cute'. She was _not_ cute.

Kiunno lifted his other foot out the window, turning his back to her.

"Stop right there!" She yelled with all the authority she could manage. She was the oldest after all, so he had to listen to her-

Kiunno hopped out the window.

Kushina stared at the windowsill in shock for a long second. Then she charged after him. She climbed up on the chair and scrambled out after him, leaving an even more trampled pillow in her wake. She misjudged the drop and stumbled as she landed, tumbling into the wet grass. Her surprised cry was muffled by the dirt in her mouth. When she finally rolled to a stop and managed to lift her head, her eyes were blazing _._ She spat grass and pebbles as she pushed herself up, running after him.

She found him under the cherry tree at the bottom of a small hill. Mama told them a story about it once. She said that a long time ago the very first clan leader planted the tree at the heart of the village—where the people are!—in the middle of the war as a symbol of the peace he wished for, and to remember all the clan members who died in the fighting. Mama didn't like it when they wandered too far without her or Papa, but Kiunno never listened.

He was lying on the ground at the base of the large tree, surrounded by pink petals. The branches didn't provide much shade, but he didn't look like he cared. His hands were covered in scratches and his knees were scraped, so he didn't have an easy landing either. His arms were spread out to the side and his eyes were closed, making him look almost peaceful. At least until Kushina threw herself on top of him. She took extreme pleasure in the way his eyes bulged, and the strange half-wheeze, half-choked sound he made as she landed on his chest.

She grinned manically at him and lifted her fist, but waited until his coughing died down to slam her hand down on the ground next to his head. A few petals flew up and her knuckles really hurt, but the look on his face was worth—her eyes widened. His expression didn't change. He didn't even flinch.

"Aa… you're always so violent," he whined.

Kushina narrowed her eyes. She grabbed the collar of his white shirt in her fist, jerking him up. His head lolled backwards even as her free hand curled into another fist. "Say you're sorry, or _else,_ " she waited for him to do what she said, or at least _look_ afraid, but he didn't do either. Instead he locked eyes with her.

"You won't hit me," his voice dropped to a mumble. "You never do."

Her eyes became slits. She was a second away from proving him wrong when she was distracted by his eyes. More of the sun was coming through the branches than before and the light fell directly onto his face. His eyes were the prettiest shade of gold she'd ever seen. Her fist faltered, then fell away completely. She leaned forward to stare into them, her own eyes wide.

Kiunno made a face that said he didn't appreciate the sudden lack of personal space. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away. "Too close," he murmured, almost to himself. "You're too bright."

Kushina frowned and dropped him, leaning back. "Are you making fun of me?" She asked, half confusion and half threat.

"No. It's chakra." He squinted at her out of the corner of his eye.

Kushina looked down at herself as if she could see what he was talking about. "Chakra?" She mimicked the way he was squinting, but still couldn't see anything.

Kiunno's eyes slid to the side and he waved wildly at her, throwing away the question.

Kushina looked down again, but she didn't know what she was looking for. What did chakra even look like? She tried to imagine it, but all she could think about were the picture books of the chakra system that Mama showed them. She didn't remember those books saying anything about chakra being 'bright'. Kiunno was still looking away. Kushina shook her head, pushing her thoughts away. Maybe he meant the sun or something. She refocused on his eyes. A cloud must have been blocking the light because they weren't so gold now. More hazel-ish.

"Ki-"

"I _told you_ not to call me that," he interrupted her, back to whining again.

"-what color are my eyes?" She finished, ignoring him.

He looked up at her. "Purple."

Kushina tilted her head. "Dark, deep purple, or pretty, light purple?"

Kiunno squinted again. "Purple."

Kushina frowned and leaned forward. His eyes skittered to the side. "I _know_ that! Are they light purple or dark purple?"

"Purple," he deadpanned.

Kushina leaned back and crossed her arms, blowing out an annoyed breath. "You're no help."

He didn't respond. Kushina glared fiercely at him until she caught him scratching at his shoulder. "Why do you do that all the time?" She asked.

Kiunno went still, lifting his hand to stare at it as if he hadn't realized what he was doing. He let it drop a second later, and petals crunched loudly as it hit the ground. "Chakra," was his explanation.

Kushina felt a spark of her earlier fire. She started to reach forward, planning to grab his collar and threaten him until he gave her a _real_ answer, only for him to snatch her wrist halfway there. She hadn't even seen him move. Her shock temporarily smothered her anger.

Kiunno met her eyes and his intense stare was a bucket of ice cold water on the smoldering remains of her anger. "I already told you why," he shook his head and threw her hand back at her. "You always forget. You're still too young to retain anything."

Kushina hesitated, suddenly uneasy because right then he didn't sound like the Kiunno she knew. He sounded older, somehow. More mature. She didn't know why he was using a big word like 'retain' suddenly, or when he learned it, or even what it meant. She didn't get why he said she was 'too young' either. They were the same age, _plus_ he was younger than her! She didn't like what she was feeling, so she snatched the collar of his shirt and yanked him up again.

"Who are you and where's my brother?!" She shouted in his face.

Kiunno grimaced, turning his head away. The intense look in his eyes faded away. "So violent," he complained.

Kushina relaxed slightly, but then she heard a familiar voice calling for her from the direction of the house and—her eyes widened. "Oh!" Her head jerked guiltily towards Mama's voice. She had forgotten all about the important mission Mama trusted her with. She immediately rolled off Kiunno and shot to her feet, quickly brushing all the dirt off her pants. "Get up! I promised Mama I would bring you back!" She said all of this in a rush, as if the faster she said it the faster it would happen.

Kiunno tilted his head to the side as Mama called for them again but didn't move. "I don't want to go," he looked back at her.

Kushina didn't have time to care about what he wanted. She tugged on his arms, trying to pull him up by brute force, but she only managed to drag him a few feet to the side. She gave up when he wouldn't budge any more. "Why not?!" She asked impatiently through her teeth, shifting from one foot to the other.

"I'll get in trouble," he calmly explained as if they had all the time in the world. "You know Mama doesn't want me out here. She would have stopped me if I went out the back."

Kushina tried his legs. "You should have stayed inside!" She dug her feet in the dirt and grunted as she put all her weight into trying to pull him backwards.

"I don't like inside." He didn't seem to care that half of his body wasn't touching the ground.

Kushina dropped him, breathing hard. "You won't get in trouble!"

He looked doubtful.

"I mean it! Mama just wanted to give you her stirring spoon!"

He looked more interested at that. "Really?"

"Yes, really!" Kushina watched him slowly, but _finally_ get up. She didn't wait for him to start moving on his own and instead grabbed his hand, tugging him after her as she sprinted back to the house. He was forced to run with her or have his arm dislocated. All his complaints were lost in the wind.

She only let go of him once she was standing in front of Mama. Kiunno plopped down on the ground next to her and angled his body away from her, muttering to himself and rubbing his hurt shoulder. She didn't pay attention to him, meeting Mama's worry-filled eyes. "I found him." She said proudly.

Mama shook her head. "Where did you two go?" She looked down at Kiunno and crossed her arms. "How many times have I told you not to go out by yourself-" she stopped as Kushina shook her head rapidly back and forth, her eyes wide.

Kushina held up a hand to block Kiunno from seeing and then began making a complicated series of gestures, doing her best to illustrate her promise that he wouldn't get in trouble using only her fingers. She ended her coded speech by making her pointer finger and ring finger simulate two people running towards the house and thought that the whole thing was pretty accurate. Looking up at Mama's twitching, exasperated eyebrow told her that the feeling wasn't mutual. She frowned and was about to try again when Mama grabbed her hand and pushed it down. Her lips twitched as she fought off a smile.

"Just… go back inside," she let go of Kushina's hands, and then looked down at Kiunno, her eyes turning stern. "This is the last time either of you, but especially _you,_ will go wandering around by yourselves, _right?_ "

Kushina nodded. She followed Mama's gaze down to Kiunno and waited for him answer obediently, but he didn't. He only stared down at his lap. Mama sighed but turned around and headed back inside, Kushina at her heels.

She froze the instant she stepped foot into the kitchen. Papa was leaning against the counter next to the bowl, casually licking the stirring spoon. "Papa!" Kushina yelled, horrified.

He froze, quickly wiping batter off his mouth. "What? What did I do?" He looked between the three of them. Mama didn't dignify him with an answer. She only moved past him and pulled a clean spoon out of a drawer.

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 **A/N:** Thank you for all the follows and reviews! I really appreciate it.

(Don't) Forget by Swissed Toast


	3. Wind Chime - Part 1

_Familiar._

That was how the world felt to him. It made him feel like he spent his whole life watching everything from behind the safety of a glass wall, until one day the universe decided to take a hammer to everything he thought he knew and chucked him out into the world. Some things were more familiar to him than others, and there were a few things that didn't trigger that weird feeling when he felt like they should. He still didn't know why.

Well... that wasn't completely true. Whenever he thought too hard about why he felt the way he did, he brushed up against a mental wall. He could feel it like it was a physical thing. A part of him knew that all the answers to his confusion was behind it, and that if he really, _really_ wanted to, he could break it. He had almost done it once. He had been so frustrated by his inability to understand himself that he would have happily torn it down had a voice in the deepest, darkest corner of his mind not spoken up. The voice had warned him to leave it alone and to forget it was even there. He still didn't know what made him listen. The urgency in the voice? The way it made it sound like he would regret it if he did?

The reason didn't really matter because in the end he left the wall up. He knew there had to be something bad behind the wall, something so bad that that he created a barrier in his head to protect himself from it. It reminded him of a dam standing between a town at the bottom of a hill and a huge force of water threatening to destroy it.

The voice was another weirdly familiar thing. He felt like he should recognize it, but he didn't know why. It wasn't his voice. It was the voice of an adult, and he couldn't imagine his voice ever getting that deep. It wasn't anyone he knew either. Even Papa's voice was higher than that, and none of his cousins had really deep voices either.

A stray petal tickled his nose, and he couldn't help the violent sneeze that followed. He sniffed a few times, slowly opening his eyes. Pink filled his vision. He quickly brushed the petals covering him away, then stared at the branches above him. If he squinted, he could just barely make out lines of dim chakra flowing up through the wood. He followed the stream down to the base of the tree, where the chakra was brighter, and then down to the dirt where it became so dim he couldn't see it anymore. He turned his stare to the grass and tried to imagine tiny lines of blue light flowing through the wildflowers around him.

Kiunno rolled onto his side. As far back as he could remember, he could always see how bright chakra was. He had no control over it. His elbow itched suddenly, and his fingers twitched against the grass as he resisted the urge to scratch it. He didn't know how to feel about chakra. On one hand, he would die without it. On the other, his chakra felt like a swarm of bees buzzing under his skin. It made him itchy and uncomfortable.

He sighed, watching a petal blow away from the force of his breath. He was a little surprised that Kushina didn't come to find him by now. He wasn't sure how long he had been laying under the tree—his nap could have been anywhere from half an hour to three—but he was sure it had been a while. He cautiously glanced up, as if thinking about her would make her appear above him, a second away from pouncing. If he could help it, he liked to be outside more than inside. Being inside for more than a few hours made him feel… weird. At first, he just couldn't sit still, and everywhere he sat made him uncomfortable. That part didn't bother him so much.

Then there was the part where he felt like the walls were closing in on him. Looking at them made him feel trapped, and at that point he had a hard time breathing normally. He didn't know when it started or how to stop it. He told Kushina about it before, but she always forgot within a week. He gave up after the fourth time. Kiunno rolled back on his back, spreading his arms out. A petal landed on his forehead, joining all the other persistent petals clinging to his body, but he didn't bother swatting it away. He went cross-eyed trying to look at it, and when that failed he settled with staring at a wayward strand of red hair.

Kiunno was caught off guard by it sometimes, as if a part of him expected to see a different color. A small, high-pitched chirp caught his attention. He spotted a small brown bird on a branch above him, pecking at the wood. It was so dim that he could only see its chakra when he squinted. He watched it hop from one branch to another, seemingly searching for something. He raised a hand to it, as if he could reach it from the ground.

Sometimes, he wished he was a bird. He wanted to fly away from his confusing thoughts, and his worry about being forced to stay inside. If he could fly up above the clouds, he didn't think he would ever come back down. The little bird was distracted by something to his left and took off. He stared after it, only dropping his hand when he couldn't see it anymore.

"I am not a bird," he mumbled, closing his eyes.

"Why would you want to be a bird?" A voice asked.

Kiunno's eyes flew open. He sat up on his elbows, but he didn't see anyone, which meant that his watcher was behind him. "How long were you hiding back there?" he asked unhappily. He twisted around as his cousin stepped out from behind the tree.

Fuurin's chakra reminded him of a small candle. If it was dark, only the spiral of chakra in his stomach would be bright enough to be seen. His arms and legs were pale blue, barely visible through his skin. His cousin shrugged, shooting him a grin. "You sigh a lot," was all he said. His front tooth was chipped, and while Kushina believed every word of his story about fighting off a group of enemy-nin by himself with only a rock, Kiunno suspected that he had just tripped over one.

"Why are you here?"

Fuurin moved closer and plopped down next to him, crossing his legs. "Aunty Utsumi didn't send me, if that's what you mean," he stared at him.

"You want to play?" Kiunno asked flatly.

"Yeah!" Fuurin threw himself backwards. "You always come up with the best games! Everyone else always wants to play ninja or hide and seek, but we play that all the time and it's so _boring!_ "

Kiunno stared down at him in silence. Fuurin responded with his best puppy-dog look. "Common, Ki! _Please!"_ He clasped his hands together.

"You want me to play with you, and then you call me _that._ " He didn't like nicknames, though no one seemed to care about what he wanted to be called. Still, he was already thinking of what they could do.

While he was deciding, Fuurin resorted to making a strange, high-pitched, not at all endearing noise. Kiunno grimaced and shoved him away before his ears started to bleed. "Fine! I'll play! Just stop whatever _that_ is!"

Fuurin grinned again and hopped up. Kiunno could only watch in horror as his cousin threw his arms up and whooped loudly to the sky. His feet were doing some sort of strange victory dance that Kiunno was half-convinced was an extremely complicated distress signal to one of his imaginary enemy-nin. By the end of it Kiunno wasn't sure whether to accuse Fuurin of being a traitor to the clan or to try and run away from him.

"So, what do we have to do?" Fuurin asked excitedly.

"Oh," Kiunno said intelligently, having forgotten all about the game amid his… whatever that was. "Get a twig, or a stick." He barely started to lift his hand to point at one when Fuurin dived for a different one.

"Found one!" He lifted his head off the ground, spitting out petals.

Kiunno slowly lowered his hand.

Fuurin crawled back to him, his shirt covered in dirt. "Sitting or standing?" he stopped on his knees in front of him.

"Sitting," Kiunno took the stick from him and cleared a square of dirt between them. He drew two vertical lines next to each other, then slashed two horizontal lines through them. He barely resisted the urge to lean back as Fuurin scooted closer to watch, his eyes wide. "It's easy," he looked up and Fuurin met his eyes. "Just get three in a row and you win. I'll draw X's-" he drew a big X in the center box. "-and you draw circles so we don't get mixed up." He handed the stick over.

Fuurin tapped it against his chin. "Like this?" He drew three small circles in three boxes.

"Yeah," Kiunno rubbed his thumb over the circles until the dirt was unmarked again.

"Can I draw over your X's?"

He shook his head.

"What if there's an X in the way?"

"Then you can't get three that way."

Fuurin hummed in understanding and drew a circle in the top left corner. "How do you do this? You came up with this game in ten seconds!" he sounded impressed.

"I don't think I do," Kiunno didn't look up, scratching an X in the top right box.

Fuurin was quiet. When Kiunno blinked at him, his cousin was staring at him in disbelief. "You 'don't think you do'?" He mimicked him in an overly flat, monotone voice.

Kiunno made a face. "I don't sound like that-"

"My point!" Fuurin said loudly. "Is that you come up with games like these all the time, that I've never seen anyone else play _ever,_ and you don't _think_ you make them?"

Kiunno considered that. _Did he_ make up the game? He didn't think so, but if Fuurin was right, where did his ideas for new games come from? He shook his head, pushing away the thought, "It's your turn."

Fuurin sighed, but drew a circle in the bottom left square, blocking any chance of an easy win. "What're you gonna name this?"

Kiunno stared at him.

Fuurin's eyes widened. "You have to name this! You made it!"

"You name it," Kiunno said in disinterest, refocusing on the game. He drew a X in the middle left box.

"Hmm. What about circles and crosses?"

"No."

* * *

Fuurin turned out to be surprisingly good at Kiunno's still-unnamed game, and after losing the first round, went on to win or tie the next eight rounds they played. Kiunno's unbelievable losing streak— _he_ was the one who taught Fuurin how to play!—made him seriously consider retiring from the game for the rest of his life.

During their tenth game, someone else joined them. They were both in deep concentration. Kiunno stared intensely at the game as if the circles and X's were complex puzzles holding the answers to the universe. Fuurin was anxiously scratching off layers of the twig with his fingernail by the second, something he only did when they were close to tying. Neither of them noticed the sound of footsteps.

Fuurin carefully drew a circle in the bottom middle box. The center was left empty for now, as filling it in would either give Fuurin the advantage or end the game in another tie. Kiunno didn't want either of those to happen.

The newcomer cleared his throat. Kiunno pressed the tip of the twig against the center box. Fuurin stifled a gasp. A tie would be better than another loss, even if it would only be by a tiny bit. Then again, he could still win. If Fuurin fell for his trick and marked his circle where he thought he would, Kiunno would have an open space between two X's on the left side, but if he didn't... He hesitated before moved the twig down to the bottom right box, sealing his fate.

The newcomer nudged Fuurin's foot with his sandal, but his cousin only jerked his leg away with an irritated noise. Fuurin leaned forward, his eyes scanning the dirt board.

Kiunno waited patiently, wearing his best poker face.

"Fuu, it's time to go home."

Fuurin traced the location of all the X's with a finger, his eyebrows furrowed. He muttered something too low for Kiunno to hear.

The newcomer was silent for a few seconds. "Ki?" He tried.

Kiunno didn't move when Fuurin slowly drew a circle directly in the middle. He didn't hand the twig over immediately, clearly conflicted by his decision.

There was a frustrated noise behind them, and then the newcomer dropped to the ground, blowing petals everywhere.

Kiunno was extremely careful in picking the pink intrusions up off the board. Fuurin squeezed his eyes shut and shoved the twig at him. As soon as Kiunno touched it, his composure cracked slightly, and a hint of a smile escaped. He marked the winning X.

Fuurin froze, his eyes bulging impossibly wide. He stared down at the board in utter incomprehension for a few seconds before it seemed to dawn on him that he lost. "Noo!" He wailed loudly, slapping both hands against his face in despair.

"Am I still being ignored?"

Kiunno reveled in his victory, ignoring the fact that he lost eight out of ten games, and put the twig down. Fuurin flopped backwards and rolled around on the ground, wailing the whole time.

"Yeah, okay."

Kiunno heard shuffling behind him, and then a figure was stepped over him. He glanced up, then quickly away. Souta was too bright. His entire body was a glowing orb of blue, like his body could barely contain his chakra. It was like staring at a small star up close. Kiunno quickly looked down, black spots dancing in his eyes, noticing the fresh sandal-shaped shoe print perfectly in the center of their dirt board. There was no doubt Souta had done it as purpose. At least he waited until the game was over.

Souta leaned down, easily scooping Fuurin up and trapping him between his arm and flak jacket. His other hand went over his mouth, muffling his surprised cry. Kiunno couldn't look up past the mud splattered around his ankles, but he could see Fuurin's feet as he squirmed, kicking wildly in his struggle to escape.

"I come all the way out here to get you, and this is how I'm treated?" He sounded amused and indignant all at once.

Fuurin responded with a series of unintelligible, angry noises.

Souta's feet moved away, then turned back. "Want to come with us? I was going to see if there were any leftovers at the shop," he hesitated. "I can walk you back myself if Aunt Utsumi…" he trailed off and was silent for a few seconds.

"Are you licking my hand?" he didn't seem to like the answer, because a second later a flailing body fell in front of Kiunno. He winced as Fuurin smacked the ground, fingers twitching weakly against the grass.

"Ow," he lifted his head, dirt stuck to his forehead. "Hasn't anyone ever told you it's not nice to-Ahhh!" A pair of arms picked him up again. "If I was at full strength-!"

"Yeah, yeah. You'd beat me up, I know."

Kiunno heard him huff and knew that his arms were crossed. Souta shifted, and then offered him his free hand. Kiunno stared at it, and Souta made an aggravated noise.

"You too? I don't know what you guys have against hand-holding," he grumbled. " _Then again,_ I still have enough room left to carry another Fuu-sized kid."

Kiunno made a face at the thought of himself dangling like a ragdoll from Souta's arms, his hand suddenly looking a lot more appealing. Souta wiggled his fingers. He sighed but gave in and grabbed his hand. "Souta," he mumbled, his eyes on the ground.

"Yes?" Souta asked, pleased with himself.

"Hide your chakra."

Souta's grip loosened, and Kiunno didn't need to look at his chakra to know he was surprised. "Aunt Utsumi told you about that?"

He closed his eyes instead of answering. It wasn't hard to figure out. Papa and Mama were small flickers of light like Fuurin, while being around anyone else made him feel like heavy-duty flashlights were constantly being shined in his face and searing his brain.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sharpening Stones by Sublimey


	4. Wind Chime - Part 2

"Put me down or you'll regret it," Fuu warned his brother, stretching his arms out. If only he could reach one of the sticks they left on the ground, he would show Sou that he wasn't to be messed with.

Sou huffed out a laugh.

Fuu gave up on a weapon when Sou stepped off the grass and moved onto a dirt road. "I'll put bugs in your pillow," he threatened.

"Thanks for the warning," Sou said pleasantly.

Fuu clenched his fists. He kicked and punched at Sou's legs, and when that didn't work, decided to play dead. If Sou thought something was wrong, he would put him down. Then he could make his escape.

He counted to sixty. Fuu peeked, but Sou wasn't even looking at him. "I'm dying, Sou! Do something!" he choked, grabbing at his throat.

"You know, dying people don't usually announce that they're dying," Sou said.

Fuu dropped his hands. He sighed loudly, but Sou still didn't look at him. He glanced down, searching for the weapons pouch strapped to his side. It was just his luck that it wasn't there. He glanced over the tear in Sou's pants, right over his knee.

"What was your mission like?" he asked.

Sou sucked in. "Why?" he asked, glancing down at him. He raised an eyebrow. "Worried about me?"

Fuu looked away. "Never!"

"Well, it was…" Sou stopped walking, and Fuu watched him shake his head hard. "I just got back," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I'll tell you about it later, okay?"

Sou stared off to the side, avoiding his gaze. Fuu knew he wouldn't. He looked at the hole in his pants again and decided to drop it. Sou started walking again.

"I'll call in backup if you don't let go," Fuu warned him, trying to get back to before he asked about the mission.

"I'm waiting," Sou said, looking down at him.

Fuu looked away from him, trying to hide a smile. He could hear whispers of conversation rising around him as they entered the market. Stalls lined the road, some covered with cloth or tarps protecting fruits from the heat, while others were selling small bones that were supposed to bring good luck or twine bracelets brought from other villages. Fuu recognized most of the people gathered to look at what was being offered, but a few men with brown or black hair mingled around, standing out with all the red.

Foreigners. Sou didn't like him calling them that, but all the other kids at the Academy did. They weren't _really_ foreigners. Uzu rarely got visitors from across the water. The whirlpools were too dangerous to cross if one didn't know how to navigate them and not worth the effort. They lived on the other side of the island. His clan was the biggest, but not the only ones in Uzu. Every once in a while the smaller clans came out of their pocket of the island to look at what vendors brought from overseas, or talk to Elder Hama.

But mostly, they kept to themselves.

Fuu wanted to stare at a dark-haired man hovering in front of a stand with fresh tomatoes, but if Sou caught him he would tell, and he already knew the lecture he would get from that by heart. He released a long breath, but of course he was ignored.

Craning his neck, Fuu caught a glimpse of Ki on Sou's other side. Sou's hand was on his shoulder, keeping him close as he navigated around the small crowd. His eyes were still closed, one hand clinging to Sou's jacket. Ki was his best friend, but he was hard to understand sometimes. Like earlier. He seemed sad, but Fuu couldn't figure out why.

Fuu stroked his chin. "Why does chakra bother Ki so much?"

"I'm right here," Ki muttered.

Sou paused. "It's complicated."

"I know the pathways in his eyes are overdeveloped, but _how_ did they get that way-" He stopped at Sou's look.

"And how do you know that?" his brother asked carefully.

Fuu swallowed. "It was an accident!" He pressed his hands together, bowing his head. "You and Ma were talking about it when you thought I was asleep and I thought I heard something downstairs and I had to check it out in case someone was breaking in and-"

"You mean you got out of bed to listen in?"

Fuu shook his head back and forth. "No, that's not what happened at all!"

Sou ducked under the curtain of a shop, his sandals clacking against the tile. Part of a light brown table came into view before Fuu was unceremoniously tossed onto a seat. He grunted as he landed stomach first, wrapping his arms around himself. "I thought we were brothers," he wheezed as Ki took a seat next to him.

Sou waved this away. "Brothers don't spy on brothers."

"Maybe if you were a better shinobi, you would've noticed."

Halfway across the room, Sou stopped. Ki was already scooting away when Sou pounced on Fuu, forcing him onto his back so he could be tickled to death. He laughed until he couldn't breathe, but Sou didn't let up.

"What was that?"

Fuu gasped for air, shoving at the fingers against his side. "I take it back!" he yelped, squirming. "You're the best shinobi on the island. Just stop!"

"Aww, look at my boys!"

Sou glanced back and quickly got off. Fuu sucked in sweet oxygen, groaning. He glared at Ki. "Why didn't you help me?"

"Help you what?" Ki asked innocently.

Fuu pushed himself up, clutching his stomach. "We could've taken him together," he insisted.

Ki eyed Sou's back. He shook his head. "You should've called your backup for help," he said, propping an elbow on the table. "I wasn't going down with you."

Fuu shook his fist at Sou's back. "Vengence will be swift," he whispered.

"You closed the shop?" Sou asked.

"Course I did!" Ma said, squeezing his arms. "I haven't seen you in three months, Sou. I think our customers can understand wanting a little family time. And if they can't? Too bad. They'll survive a day without me."

"When's Pa supposed to come back?"

Ma's grip tightened on him, even as she smiled. "Soon, I hope," she let go, patting him. "Go get changed, Sou. We'll talk later,"

Fuu frowned when she shot them a brief glance. "We're old enough to hear this stuff," he muttered.

Ki shrugged. "Ask one of your Academy friends if they know what's going on."

Fuu slammed his fist against his palm. "Great idea! _Someone_ has to know, right?"

Ki yawned in response.

"Sleepy?" Fuu asked him.

Ki shook his head, "Watching you makes me tired."

Fuu blinked, not sure what he meant. Before he could ask, Ma was there, standing over them with her hands on her hip. "And what do we have here?" she grinned. "Does Utsumi know you're here, little Ki?"

Ki closed his eyes and didn't answer.

Her grin widened. She bent to ruffle his hair, ignoring his noises of complaint and half-hearted swats. "You're as much of a rebel as I was at your age," she winked. "Don't ever change." she straightened, and Fuu held up his hands when she turned to him.

"Ma, wait-!"

She kissed both his cheeks. "You're never too old to be loved by your mother, sweet boy."

Fuu flushed as she pulled away, wiping his cheeks with his sleeve. "Not in front of my friends," he mumbled. He was too embarrassed to look at Ki.

She laughed. "Ki's family. He doesn't count," she smiled and turned away, whistling as she disappeared behind the back counter. "So, what do you boys want for dinner? Grilled mackerel, or yakisoba chicken."

Fuu leaned over the table, his eyes wide. "Mackerel?"

"Why not? It's a special occasion!" She poked her head out. "What do you say, Ki?"

Fuu grabbed him by the shoulders. "I'll do anything," he said seriously. "Anything you want, Ki."

Ki pushed him away. He closed his eyes again. "Mackerel."

Fuu cheered.

* * *

"It's so good. But I don't think I can eat anymore," Fuu groaned, reluctantly putting his chopsticks down next to his half-finished plate. His third plate. He fell back, spreading his arms out.

He could hear Sou laughing. His brother hadn't eaten much. Fuu tried not to pay attention to it, but it was hard when even Ki ate more than him. Whatever happened on that mission ruined his appetite.

"You planning on hiding out here for the night, Ki?" Ma asked. "I won't kick you out if you don't want to go, but you know Utsumi will tear Uzu apart looking for you."

Fuu could see her pointing a pair of chopsticks at him. He turned his head. Ki was curled up next to him, his eyes squeezed shut. For all the begging Fuu had to do to get him to agree, he sure ate a lot of it.

He glanced over as Sou stood up. A good chunk of mackerel was still on his plate. "I brought him here, so I'll take him back," he announced.

Ma glanced at his plate, lips curling into a frown.

Fuu made himself sit up, holding onto the table. "I'm coming," he said, even as his stomach gurgled in disagreement.

"I didn't cook all that for you to go and make yourself sick. You can either stay right there or go up to your room, but you're not leaving this shop."

"But Ki ate as much as I did!" Fuu protested.

"If he vomits, that's Utsumi's problem. If you vomit, it's _my_ problem," Ma said, snapping her chopsticks at him.

"Don't want to go," Ki spoke up, his voice barely above a mumble.

Ma paused, looking at him. "If he wants to stay, he stays." She stood and cleared the plates. Her fingers hovered over Sou's for a few seconds before she picked it up. "If I'm not here in the morning, assume your Aunt fed my body to the whirlpools."

* * *

 **A/N:** I have no real excuse for why I was gone for so long. But I'm not abandoning this.

Fate-Breaker by Face The Stars


	5. Sunroom

Himuro didn't react when he heard a chair scrape against the floor behind him, nor when he heard a soft thump. Ki was awake.

"Where's Kushina?" came the sleepy mumble.

"The Academy," Himuro answered, maneuvering a pot of boiling rice over a woven basket. "But she didn't go without a fight." He carefully drained the water, feeling the steam as the it trickled through the holes into the bucket underneath. "We're lucky we got them to take her without having to pay for damages in advance."

He expected nothing less on Shina's first day, but it still would've been nice if he hadn't been woken up by Shina pouncing on him, her hair wild and sticking up everywhere. It had taken all his self-control not to react with a kunai. Utsu had been standing in the doorway, armed with a comb and a brush. Himuro had suffered as Shina ran around the room, clamoring over him when Utsu got close to catching her.

Then there was the tantrum she'd thrown when they told her that Ki wouldn't be going with her. And when he finally, _finally,_ managed to wrangle her outside, he'd made the mistake of turning away to close the door. It was only half a second, but when he looked back, Shina had ripped off her pants. She used his shock to dart back into the house before he thought to react.

His hands shook a little remembering the ordeal. Himuro loved his little whirlwind, he really did, but sometimes she made him wonder why he ever agreed to have kids.

Kami, was he grateful for Ki.

He didn't think he'd make it if he had two whirlwinds running around. He scooped out the grains that were left at the bottom of the basket and spooned out enough to fill a small bowl. Then he tasted it.

"Not bad," he said, impressed with himself. Himuro wouldn't call himself a good cook. In fact, the only food he could make without burning it was rice. Though, that didn't mean it turned out edible. But with Utsu off dragging Shina to the Academy, he thought he did a pretty okay job, if he did say so himself.

He put both the bowl and a steaming plate of seasoned seaweed in front of Ki. His head was against the table, his right arm a pillow. "There's more if you want it," Himuro told him, ruffling his hair.

Ki lifted his head, swatting his hand away. "Why do you do that?" he grumbled.

Himuro broke off a piece of seaweed and bit into it. Between Shina driving him mad and Utsu yelling at him for letting the whirlwind back into the house to wreak havoc, he hadn't stopped for breakfast. "Not a lot of people around here have hair like yours. It's hard to resist sometimes," he said, completely serious.

"What?"

"It's like looking at the cherry tree when it blooms," he went on.

Ki flushed. He dropped his head on the table, covering his hair with both arms. "It's not pink!"

"As pink as the sunset," Himuro said wistfully.

"It's not!" he said louder, kicking his feet.

"It's so pink that-"

Ki pushed out of his chair and ran past him.

Himuro popped the rest in his mouth, picked up both plates, and went after him. Ki wasn't sulking in his room like he'd been expecting, but in the study, sitting against a bookshelf with his legs pulled up, looking away from him.

"It's not pink."

Himuro crouched in front of him, the plates clinking against the floor as he put them down. He smiled a little. "You know I'm just teasing you."

"Why can't I go to the Academy?"

He blinked at the question, scratching his chin as he thought of a way to put it into words he'd understand. "Too many kids, too much chakra," he finally settled with, squeezing his knee. "You can't walk around the halls with your eyes closed all day. You won't learn anything."

"My eyes are dumb," Ki grumbled.

"Special," Himuro corrected, forcing him to lift his head. "There are a lot of people out there who would do anything to be able to see chakra like you do. To feel it like you do."

"I can only feel my own chakra," he muttered.

Himuro wasn't deterred. "Most shinobi are blind to chakra. You'll have an easier time because of it, trust me."

"Shinobi are dumb."

Himuro laughed, ruffling his hair again. Ki didn't push him away. "You'll learn to control it," he promised. He stood and pulled two scrolls off a shelf. "You know, it's good that you ran in here. We can start your lessons early."

"Lessons?" Ki asked, voice muffled.

Himuro paused when he turned around. It wasn't the sight of Ki biting into a roll of seaweed, the middle filled with rice, that gave him pause. It was the rice on the ground, on his fingers, and all over his mouth. He watched a few grains disappear under the bookshelf and felt mild despair when he thought of how long it would take to clean up.

"Between you and Shina," he said with a shake of his head. He left, went to the kitchen, and returned armed with napkins. "You thought not going to the Academy meant you got to laze around all day?" he asked.

Ki avoided his eyes.

Himuro sat a safe distance away from the rice-catastrophe happening across from him and unrolled both scrolls. One was blank, while the other was scrawled with seals. "While Shina's learning the basics, I'm going to teach you fuinjutsu." He waited, but his son looked distinctly unimpressed.

"Do I have to?"

"Of course not," Himuro said. "You can run around the house until Shina comes back instead," he offered.

Ki flopped to the ground.

"Since I'm better at this than your mother," which he would keep claiming as long as she wasn't within earshot. "You'll learn more from me."

Ki grabbed the rice bowl, scooped out what was left, and shoved it in his mouth.

Himuro's eyebrow twitched, just a little. "Okay, laps around the house it is."

"I'm listening," he protested, shaking the bowl over his face. He licked off grains that stuck to his chin.

"Listening isn't enough. You'll never master it that way," Himuro shook his head. "You have to see it. You have to practice."

Ki rolled over and crawled across the floor, leaving a trail of rice and crumpled seaweed bits in his wake. He shifted onto his knees in front of the blank scroll, then wiped his hands on his pants.

Himuro looked at the stack of napkins on the floor next to him and wondered why he thought, even for a second, that Ki would use them. He ignored this, tapping the seal in front of him. "This is the most basic seal that you can come across. With it, you can store nonliving objects in a pocket space," he glanced up, just to make sure Ki hadn't nodded off. "This space exists outside of time. It's like a different dimension, apart from this one with its own rules about physics and volume."

"Don't get it," Ki said, brow furrowed.

Himuro nodded. "Okay," he scratched his chin again. "If you put something into a scroll, it stays the way you left it. Seal something living into a scroll and they'll come back out exactly as you left them. They won't age, and they won't starve. Understand?"

Ki nodded.

"A storage seal can hold a lot before it reaches its limit. Enough that it might seem infinite. Not all seals are like this. The more complicated seals are sensitive, with strict limits that can't be tweaked. A live storage seal can only hold one person, and trying to force another into it will kill both the being sealed and the one making the seal." Himruo stared hard at him. "Never experiment with the lives of living beings. Not for any reason."

Ki stared down at the scroll, tracing his thumb over an even-numbered seal.

"Promise you won't." Himuro had seen too many needless deaths because someone thought the accomplishment and praise from doing the impossible was worth their lives.

"I won't."

Himuro leaned back, letting the tension in the air dissipate. "Of course you won't," he said with a teasing smile. "I'll tell Shina if you do."

Ki looked troubled, rubbing his shoulder. "She bit me yesterday."

Himuro blinked.

"Said she wanted to see how strong her teeth were," he mumbled. "If they were strong enough to bite through rock."

Kami help her classmates.

Himuro cleared his throat and grabbed a wooden inkpot and a small brush from a lower shelf, putting them down next to him. "I want you to copy this seal for your first lesson," he said. "Make yours identical to it."

Ki glanced from the blank paper to the ink. "Why?"

"Fuinjutsu is a dangerous art, Ki. All the characters in a seal must be perfect, and a balance has to be maintained or it won't work. Or it'll break," he warned him. "If a seal is imbalanced, it can explode. If it's balanced, but the characters are sloppy or smudged, the results can be unpredictable if you're lucky. Deadly if you're not." Fuinjutsu was in his blood, but Himuro was more than willing to scare him with the reality of it if it made him more careful in the future.

Ki looked hesitant.

"A seal won't work until you add chakra to it, Ki," Himuro said in a softer tone, reading his expression. "There's nothing to worry about."

Ki nodded, reaching for the brush. He let it hover over the paper for a few seconds as he looked at the seal, deciding where to start.

Himuro was passive as he watched a drop of ink form at the end of the brush. When it finally fell and splashed the page, he silently grabbed the paper, crumbled it, and then threw it behind him.

Ki stared at him. Himuro ignored the way that each drop that hit the unprotected ground after broke his heart a little. He fought to maintain what he considered his best 'teacher face'.

"Start over," he instructed. "You're using too much ink."

Ki still stared.

"Or run laps," he threatened, losing a bit of his composure.

Ki grumbled to himself but stood and got another piece of paper. He wiped the area clean with his sleeve as he sat back down and Himuro wondered what he'd done to deserve this. Ki smoothed the paper down and dipped the brush back into the inkpot, wiping the excess off on the mouth of the bottle.

He managed a string of characters on the outer ring before Himuro crumpled it up and threw it away. Ki made a frustrated noise and fell to the ground.

"Sloppy," Himuro admonished.

Ki didn't bother getting up this time. He crawled instead.

"That would cause an imbalance," he pointed out, and Ki paused in the middle of the seal he was drawing over another. "An odd-numbered seal has to be on top of another odd-numbered seal. Pay more attention."

Ki only sighed as the paper was thrown away.

By the time Shina got back, barreling into the study and accidentally tearing Ki's work apart under her feet, he had made one passable copy of the seal, with a mountain of failures all over the room.

"This is stupid," Ki grumbled as Shina apologized, desperately trying to shove the pieces back together.

Himuro shook his head but felt warm as he watched them.

* * *

 **A/N:** Fade to Black by Isao


	6. Fiery One

When Kiunno opened his eyes, his home was on fire.

He was standing at the top of a hill, overlooking Uzu as it burned to the ground. Thick plumes of smoke seemed to be coming everywhere, and even the sea was dyed a deep shade of red. His eyes watered. He coughed hard as smoke curled in his lungs, burning his throat like acid.

Kiunno didn't understand what was happening.

Shouts rose up from below him. He spotted a red-headed woman through the wall of black, chased by a man wielding a sword in a gray flak jacket. Aunt Narumi? Kiunno closed his eyes when the shinobi slashed as her, turning away when he heard her cry out. But it didn't stop. She screamed, until he heard metal hitting flesh and she went quiet.

Kiunno slapped his hands over his ears. This was all wrong. Someone was playing a trick on him. A genjutsu. It had to be. He wouldn't believe anything else. He could still hear his clan dying through his fingers, a chorus of agony and pleas for mercy that went ignored. He pressed his hands down harder, turning his back to the carnage.

He counted to ten, but he didn't wake up, and the genjutsu didn't fade. Kiunno dropped to his knees, leaning forward until his forehead hit the dirt. He didn't want to be here. Souta Fuurin, Kushina… were they down there? Were any of the screams theirs? He shuddered.

A hand touched his shoulder.

Kiunno jerked back, staring at the man crouched next to him.

"Ah." His smile was wry as he turned his gaze to the devastation behind him. "I didn't mean for you to see any of this."

Kiunno's eyes went wide. He was the voice. The voice that stopped him from tearing the wall in his head down.

The man patted his shoulder. "I've been keeping a tight hold on all this for so long. It gets tiring, you know? I slipped up a little." He stood, and Kiunno stared after him as he stretched his arms above his head.

His skin was dark, a shade he'd never seen in Uzu, and his hair was tied in a small ball at the top of his head. He looked young.

"It's not real," the man said over his shoulder, beckoning him closer. "Come look."

Kiunno hesitated. What if he was wrong? He didn't want to see his Aunt's body again. He made himself stand when the man gestured at him again but couldn't help closing his eyes as he neared the edge.

"Open your eyes, Kiunno," the man said gently.

It was the flash of surprise that made them shoot open. How did he know his name?

The man stared down at what was below, his hands in his pockets. "That's what you like to be called, right?"

Kiunno took a cautious step forward. What he saw both took his breath away and scared him all over again. Uzu was still on fire, but everything was frozen. The fires were still, hovering in the air. He couldn't hear the crackle of houses burning anymore or smell the smoke. It was like someone hit a giant pause button. He made himself look further down, but Aunt Narumi's body was gone. So was all the blood.

"How do you know my name?" Kiunno asked suspiciously, looking up at him.

The man laughed, loud and long. "I'll fix this," he said once he calmed down. "Don't worry about any of it, alright? You won't remember when you wake up."

Kiunno sat, crossing his legs. His head hurt, and he was more confused than before. He stared at the frozen plumes of smoke, then at the ocean, which wasn't moving either. "Is this a nightmare?"

"The future and the past all at once," the man corrected.

Kiunno looked at his lap, because the more he asked the less he understood. "You're going to make me forget?"

"Make you?" the man repeated, rolling his shoulders. "Man, you make me sound cruel." He shook his head. "You don't want to know half the stuff I do, trust me."

"And what if I do?" Kiunno asked, defiant. If anyone should decide what he should and shouldn't know, it should be him. At least when he wanted to tear down the wall in his head, he chose not to mess with it. Forcing him to forget was no choice at all.

The man was quiet for a long time. He stared at what was left of Uzu. "No, you don't."

Kiunno opened his eyes.

He couldn't see, but he could feel his blanket curled around his legs, his pillow under his head. He also heard how loudly he was breathing. His clothes were stuck to his body, and he could feel the sweat in his sheets.

He felt around, and his knuckles bumped against the wall.

Kiunno shoved away from it, breath hitching. He fell out of bed, blanket tangling him as he hit the floor. He blinked and saw a shadow of the wall in front of him, boxing him in. Very suddenly, he couldn't breathe. He was trapped. He squeezed the front of his shirt, but it didn't stop his heart from hammering against his chest in a panic.

The floor was pushing him up, trying to flatten him against the ceiling. He couldn't escape. Kiunno shook as he stood, stumbling into the wall as the room swam. He pushed away from it and fell again. The walls were too close. Why couldn't he find a way out? As he laid on the floor he thought he was going to die there, crushed to death by the walls of his own room.

He was a second away from throwing up when he felt a hand grab his arm, pulling and tugging until he was somehow on his feet. Kushina got behind him, grunting and shoving him until he was on his bed. And then she pushed him out the window.

Pain flared down his side when he landed, but he could feel the sea breeze on his skin, he could hear the soft buzz of crickets hiding in the grass. It was enough for the feeling of being trapped to recede to the back of his mind, like a beast lumbering back to its cave to rest until it had another opportunity to strike. The pale light of the moon relaxed him, and his breathing was normal again by the time Kushina climbed down and landed next to him.

She dropped to her knees and pushed him onto his back, leaning over him. He closed his eyes as her chakra blinded him, but didn't tell her to move. He didn't miss the worry in her eyes when she looked at him.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

"Don't do it again," she said back, all heat to cover up her fear.

Kiunno grunted as she dropped on top of him but kept his complaints to himself as she curled against his chest. He owed her that much.

* * *

Utsumi only sighed as she shone the lantern over the two empty beds in the room, sheets in disarray and abandoned by their owners. She wasn't surprised Ki was gone. She stopped telling him not to leave the house when it became clear he wasn't going to listen. Though she was surprised that Shina went after him. She usually slept through his escape attempts, snoring and half off the bed.

She gave the room another once-over, a caution borne from her old instincts, but there was nothing to see. There were small, wooden toys scattered on Shina's side of the room and fuinjutsu books stacked on Ki's side. She wondered what Himuro would think, if he saw the dust covering them.

Originally, she came into the room with the intention of checking in on them. She and Himuro were woken up by the sound of Ki moving around. The only difference is, Himuro had pulled a pillow over his head instead of getting up. As it turned out, they only heard Ki conspiring with his sister.

Utsumi padded over to the window in a hopeless effort to see which way they disappeared to, only to blink when she saw wisps of red hair. She aimed the lantern down. It turned out she knew why Shina went with him. Her hair was all but covering his face. She was making another attempt to smother him, since the first time was foiled when they were babies.

She covered her mouth so she wouldn't laugh and wake them up, shaking her head. It made her feel better at least, knowing they were close.

While she was up, she put the lantern down and cleaned up the mess Ki had left on the floor. She paused in the middle of folding his blanket when a ripped piece of paper fluttered to the ground at her feet. She picked it up—and her breath caught. Her fingers crinkled the edge as she read it again, and then a third time, but the warning didn't change.

 _I didn't want to get involved. Didn't think I would have to._

 _Tried not to. But here we are._

 _Uzushiogakure is going to be destroyed. Don't know when._

 _After Kushina leaves for Konoha, I think. So you have some time._

 _Prepare. Do whatever you have to._

 _Don't ask Konoha for aid, because they won't help._

 _Just do me a favor and don't die, okay?_

Utsumi searched the room for any indication, anything left behind of who sent it—because she knew Ki's handwriting, and this wasn't it, but there was nothing. No trace of the person who broke into her house and left a note for her to find. It was unsettling.

Who would attack them? Why? How did they know about Kushina? Utsumi rushed out of the room and the lantern fell, spraying glass all over the floor.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sunfall by Tavina


	7. Seashore

Kiunno held a corner of a scroll still with his palm, using his other hand to draw the character for 'explode' in the middle, surrounded by a ring of curved arrows. The ring beyond that was made of numbers meant to stabilize the seal. He pulled back once he finished, holding the brush over the floorboards. He studied the original copy of the seal sitting next to it, making sure each character and arrow matched.

The explosive tag seal was complicated, and he'd rather eat dirt than do it again.

"What's that?" Kushina asked, crawling forward to look at it.

"Ugh." Kiunno fell back, spreading his arms out. He decided he hated fuinjutsu. It was probably used for toture somewhere across the water. He couldn't imagine a worse fate than being forced to copy pages and pages of seals for hours on end.

Kushina dug her knee into his side.

"A piece of paper," he deadpanned, staring at the roof. He thought he could see words carved into one of the beams. It made him nauseous.

Kushina huffed. "Tell me or I'll punch you. Really hard."

Empty threat or not, he didn't want her yelling in his face if he refused. "Explosive tag," he mumbled.

Kushina picked up the original copy and held it above her, leaning back. "Why do you get to learn all the cool stuff while I'm stuck in class all day?"

"You're leaning fuinjutsu too," Kiunno pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's so slow." Kushina turned the seal upside down, tilting her head at it. "We're still learning how to write neatly while you're doing all this advanced stuff. It's not fair."

"Ask Papa to teach you."

"He's so busy all the time now," Kushina murmured, quieter.

"Stop being a baby and ask."

Kushina made a noise in her throat, face turning red. "Fine," she said, standing. "I will." The seal crumpled in her fist as she turned to face the hallway. She didn't move.

"You going or not?" he asked.

Kushina knelt next to him. "But he's with Elder Hama. It would be rude."

"Since when do you care about being rude?"

Kushina yanked him up by his collar. "I'm polite to people who deserve it," she hissed.

Kiunno hung from her grip like a limp doll. He watched the seal on the ceiling fade into the wood as Kushina shook him and demanded he pay attention to her. The front door slid open before he could wonder why, and he understood. The seal was deactivated.

Kushina dropped him like a hot potato as footsteps echoed down the hallway. He fell with a thud, his groan shushed as an unfamiliar voice spoke from the other side of the wall.

"We're sorry we didn't give you more time to prepare for our arrival, Great Elder. I'm sure you received word about Princess Mito's condition by now."

Kiunno knew then that whoever he was, he was from across the sea. He never heard anyone on the island call Elder Hama 'Great Elder', not even the foreigners.

"Princess Mito?" Kushina mouthed at him.

He shrugged.

"Hmph," Elder Hama's cane cracked against the floor. "'Condition' you say? If growing old is a sickness, then I must be on my deathbed, eh?"

"It appears that I misspoke," the stranger said quickly. "Forgive me."

"He did not," another voice spoke up. "The seal holding the Kyuubi is dangerously weak. It is important that we bring a host for the beast back to Konoha as soon as possible. The safety of everyone in the village depends on it."

Kiunno could hear the clack of Elder Hama's cane as he turned. "And who are you?"

"Hoko Hyuuga, Great Elder."

"I brought Hoko to look at Kushina's chakra system. Just to make sure nothing changed since the last time."

Kiunno blinked. It took a second for him to process it, that the off-islander said that someone would be _looking_ at his sister's chakra. He raised one of his hands, staring at the faint blue lines running up the back of his palm to his fingertips. Someone else who could see chakra. He had questions suddenly, ones that burned his chest and fought to escape his mouth.

Was the ability to see chakra as rare across the sea as it was on the island?

Did any of them ever feel out of place in their own body like he did?

"Me?" Kushina mouthed in shock.

"And here I thought the Hyuuga were all about deferring to your elders, hm?" Elder Hama didn't wait for an answer before he spoke again, "That man over there is Himuro Uzumaki, the father of our little sea spirit."

"I'm Inojin Yamanaka. It's nice to finally meet you."

Kiunno could hear what sounded like a handshake. He dropped his hand. Did the off-islanders sort chakra in shades of brightness, like he did? Did everyone in Konohagakure have to hide their chakra around Hoko?

"What will happen after this?" Papa asked.

"Ah, that's difficult to answer," Inojin said. "When we left Konoha, Princess Mito wasn't doing so well. If we receive word that the situation has changed and Princess Mito's health is better, we won't have to take Kushina right away. If the situation hasn't changed…" he trailed off.

Did Hoko see chakra as a network of blue lines, constantly moving, flowing from one part of the body to another?

"Take me?" Kushina whispered.

Kiunno looked at his sister. Her eyes were wide, staring at the wall that separated them from the mainlanders like she could see through it. He could see fear hidden in them. He knew Kushina didn't like being scared. Her fists clenched, her teeth grinding together as she ducked her head. She would rather be angry.

He could hear Papa and the mainlander talking, Elder Hama's cane as he came down the hallway, but it was all background noise. Her chakra flared, a sudden wave of bright blue that made him flinch, black spots dancing in his vision. Kiunno closed his eyes, and when that didn't feel like enough, covered them with his arm.

Did he imagine the wisps of purple mixed in with her blue? "Kushina-"

"Uzushiogakure owes you a great debt, little sea spirit," Elder Hama interrupted him before he could tell her to stop.

Kushina gasped like she'd been holding her breath.

"Perhaps one day you'll come to understand why, or perhaps you'll hate me for it," Elder Hama mused. "But it is not my place to explain this to you. I promised your mother as much. Come, Kushina Uzumaki."

Kiunno peeked. Kushina was standing next to him, her body dipped in a short bow, hands at her side. He could hear Mama in his head, admonishing him for not showing Elder Hama proper respect, but he couldn't bring himself to get up.

His eyes watered.

Elder Hama offered her his hand. His back was warped into a 'U' shape, his beard long and braided, adorned with yellow petals and seashells. Kiunno felt like he was staring through him. He was empty inside, like he didn't have any chakra at all.

"Yes, Elder Hama." Her voice was different. Quiet. Subdued.

It unsettled Kiunno.

"Kushina will be returned to you soon enough," Elder Hama reassured him, mistaking his expression for worry. He didn't know Kushina like he did. She didn't just stop being angry.

Did Hoko see her chakra flare?

Kiunno watched Elder Hama walk out of the room with his sister, then slid his arm back over his eyes.

"This is Kushina Uzumaki," Elder Hama introduced. "Favored child of the ocean. Chosen by our ancestors to take the place of our beloved Princess and carry on her legacy once her soul returns to the sea."

"It's our pleasure, little lady," Inojin said.

"How old is she?" Hoko asked.

"Six. Her birthday was a month ago, on the tenth," Papa answered.

The conversation lulled. Kiunno tried to imagine it. The mainlander focusing on Kushina, looking, searching through the rivulets of her chakra. Would it appear suddenly, like a switch being flipped on, or would he simply look, the chakra always there but ignored? Could Hoko control it?

"The unique chakra in her system should be able to nullify the toxicity of the Kyuubi's chakra," Hoko said. "She isn't producing more of it, like we thought she would, but it should still be enough."

"Should," Papa repeated. Kiunno could hear his frown. "And if it isn't?"

"Himuro," Elder Hama warned. "We shouldn't talk about such things in front of our little sea spirit, hm?"

Kiunno thought of the chakra he saw when he looked at Kushina. He could still see it, wisps of purple, separate and distinct from the ocean of blue. There were a lot of words he didn't recognize; Princess Mito. Kyuubi. Host. The purple chakra was unique, something no one else had. He didn't know what toxic chakra looked like but knew his eyes wouldn't like it.

"Until you decide whether Kushina is suitable or hear back from your Hokage, you are welcome to stay in my home, as guests of the Uzumaki," Elder Hama said, breaking the silence.

"That is quite generous of you, Great Elder," Inojin said. "Thank you."

Kiunno heard soft footsteps. The front door opened, then closed.

"The plan seemed to have changed without my knowing," Elder Hama said wryly. "Wasn't that spitfire wife of yours supposed to be the one meeting with Konohagakure's ambassadors?"

"She was," Papa said with a sigh. "She came down with an illness this morning."

"Not the same one I appear to be suffering from, I hope."

"Why are you sending me away?" Kushina exploded before Papa could respond.

Kiunno shifted his hand down, staring at the wall. He could hear the hurt, buried beneath layers of anger.

"We are not sending you away," Papa said firmly, but he sounded tired.

"Those two—they said they were taking me, didn't they?" Her voice trembled, and Kiunno could hear the sniffs she was fighting off.

His eyes still hurt, but that didn't seem as important in the wake of the image in his head, of his stubborn, angry sister trying not to cry. Kiunno stood, padding out into the hallway. He squinted at the roof to avoid Kushina's chakra, but he could still see it, blue scratching at the corners of his vision.

Papa ran a hand through his hair. "Konohagakure is in trouble right now." He knelt in front of her, squeezing her shoulders. "Princess Mito is one of your ancestors, but she's nearing the end of her life, Shina, and she needs someone from our clan to-"

"Is it because of the boy I pushed down in class? The mud I got on Mika's dress? Tell me what I did to make you send me away."

"I would never send you away, Shina. We all want you to stay, but this is more important than what I want. A lot of people need your help."

"I don't want to help them. I want to stay here."

"I promise I'll tell you everything, Shina. Your Mama and I, we want to tell you together."

"I told you I don't wanna go! Why won't you let me stay?"

Kiunno looked down. Kushina shook him off and backed away, shaking her head. Papa reached for her, but she had already turned and ran away, her chakra wild and searing. He squeezed his eyes shut, covering his face with both hands. His head hurt. He shouldn't have looked, but he wanted to do something, to help in some way.

How was he supposed to help Kushina when he couldn't even look at her?

"It's a difficult thing to handle, at her age," Elder Hama said, quieter.

Kiunno heard the wrinkle of Papa's pants as he crouched, felt the breath of his sigh on his hands. He couldn't look. His eyes were on fire. He'd had enough of chakra.

"You can look now, Ki." Papa said gently.

He grit his teeth, shaking his head.

Papa tried to pull his hand down, but Kiunno turned his face away. If being able to see chakra made him special, why was it always hurting him? He felt Papa's arms around him, lifting him. Kiunno burrowed into his shoulder.

"I hate chakra," he said, muffled.

Papa sighed again. He didn't say anything at all for a few seconds. "We're going to find Shina, and then we're going to start on chakra exercises, see if that helps."

If his eyes were a gift, he wanted to return them.

* * *

Inojin held a cigarette between his pointer and middle finger as he looked over the ocean, steps away from the edge of a cliff. Hoko sat next to him, and a falcon stood in the center of a summoning scroll. His partner had a small note spread over his knee, scrawling a report in thin scratches of charcoal.

"You should show more respect to their Elder," Inojin said, idly blowing smoke. "A good ambassador knows how to read the room and choose whether politeness or a tougher approach is best."

Hoko paused, looking up, "I was respectful."

Inojin met his eyes and after seeing he was serious, laughed so hard he choked.

Hoko frowned. "Princess Mito is unstable. The Kyuubi could escape at any time. I would think the direness of the situation proceeds placating an Elder."

"You'd think," Inojin said, tapping ash off the end. "But why should anyone here care about that?"

Hoko's expression said he didn't understand.

Inojin watched a wave crash against the rocks, just past the shore line. That was where what was left of boats washed up from failed invaders. "The seal breaking has no effect on Uzushigakure," he explained. "If it breaks tomorrow in the middle of Konoha, the Kyuubi won't ignore the village and come traipsing over here."

The escort sent to guide them past the whirlpools told Inojin all the ways invaders had met their grisly ends trying sneak past their defenses. It seemed that the war made even allies turn suspicious eyes onto each other.

"If Kumogakure loses control of the eight-tails, we won't hear about it until after the Land of Lightning is in pieces. I doubt we would send aid, either," Inojin said.

"If the village is destroyed, Uzushiogakure loses their strongest ally," Hoko reasoned.

Inojin nodded. "That's why they're offering the girl. Say the transfer works. Our alliance becomes stronger, and our enemies become their enemies. But they also gain a powerful foothold in the village." He shrugged. "If it came down to it, I think the Princess would choose what the First believed in. The girl? She doesn't have any ties in the village. She would turn on us if we became enemies, side with Uzushiogakure if they demanded aid or supplies. And what could we do to stop her? If anyone in the village could hold the Kyuubi we wouldn't be here. Our hands are tied and the Elder knows it."

"And if the transfer fails?" Inojin took a long drag from his cigarette. "We wouldn't really be in a position not to ask for aid after that, would we?"

Hoko stared at the note, troubled. "They should not have that much power over us."

Inojin turned his gaze back to the ocean. "How old are your nephews again?"

Hoko looked up, startled. "My nephews?"

"The twins," he said, exhaling.

"Seven in a few months."

"January?"

"You knew?"

"No," Inojin twisted the cigarette between his pointer finger and his thumb. "Lucky guess. Inoichi was born in January." He wanted to turn the topic away from the Kyuubi, but now he was thinking about the war. How his son and Hoko's nephews were all too inexperienced and naïve to be thrown into it if the graduation age was lowered again.

Hoko wrapped the note around the falcon's leg, but hesitated as he tied it.

"Something on your mind?" Inojin asked him.

Hoko finished tying the note. "There was someone in the other room. A boy. Do you know who he is?"

Inojin sucked in as he thought about it, smoke filling his mouth. When he met Utsumi Uzumaki the first time, he vaguely remembered her mentioning that Kushina had a brother. It seemed so insignificant and unimportant at the time that he hadn't asked about him. The sensor-nin he was with, who had been crippled and retired from active duty since then, never acknowledged him or Utsumi's statement.

"Kushina's brother," Inojin said. There was something else he'd forgotten. Was the boy older than her by a few years? Younger? "You saw something?"

"He has unique chakra, mixed in with his normal chakra. Very little of it, but it's there. I'm sure of it."

Inojin wouldn't question him, but suddenly wished he thought to bring sake instead of a wrapped bundle of cigarettes. The Hokage would want to know about this. "Enough for him to survive the transfer?"

"It's possible," Hoko said mildly.

That roughly translated to 'maybe'. There was a chance then, that the transfer could be successful for him if the girl failed. Inojin felt a headache coming on. "Include it in your report."

Hoko unrolled the note and wrote on the back of it. Inojin watched him secure it to the falcon and form a hand-sign, a signal for the bird to take flight. He turned away and stamped his cigarette out in the grass.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at his village through a large window. The shinobi flitting from roof to roof, carrying planks of wood. The children gathered in front of the Academy as the school day came to an end. One generation that was still recovering from the war, and another he'd hoped would never have to see it.

Had it already been twenty years?

It felt like no time at all passed and they were at war again. A falcon sat on the windowsill, preening itself. He folded his hands behind his back. The instant after he read the message from his ambassadors, he'd burned it. It was cruel, but necessary, to force Kushina Uzumaki from her parents and her home. Crueler still to take the other child as a backup, a precaution in case the nine-tails overwhelmed Kushina.

Hiruzen looked at the Hokage mountain as the door to his office creaked open, wondering what sensei would do. "Hello, old friend."

He'd been expecting Danzo the second Boar told him that the falcon had been intercepted, then released a few minutes later and allowed to continue its path to his office.

"How is the Princess?"

Straight to the point, then. "Better," Hiruzen admitted. The Princess had sent the squad protecting her into something of a panic when her health declined, but the medic tending to her said that while she wouldn't get better, her will was strong. It didn't look like she would let herself die anytime soon. The report was still on his desk.

After all the trouble he went through to scramble his ambassadors to Uzushiogakure, perhaps there was still time to give Kushina more of a childhood, to let her parents give her a proper goodbye. "She's stable. Stronger than we give her credit for."

"How long until her replacement arrives?" Danzo asked.

Had Danzo always seen children as things to be used instead of the people they were? Or was that another thing that only cropped up after he was made Hokage? Along with the ever-growing rift between them.

"Kushina is a child, old friend. I can afford to let her be one for another month." The idea of tearing Kushina from her family before he had to left a bad taste in his mouth.

Danzo sighed, exasperated. "You're still soft, Hiruzen. You would sooner sacrifice the village to the nine-tails than push aside your sympathy for a child."

"So I'm told," Hiruzen said airily. He was too soft, he knew, because he still allowed Danzo to ignore his title and refer to him by his name, to question his decisions, as if he had a say. All because at one point, he considered Danzo his closest friend, his brother, and he cherished those memories.

"And the other one? Will you let that opportunity slip by, as well?" Danzo asked.

Hiruzen didn't answer him. Saying that he didn't know what he would do wasn't what his old friend wanted to hear, and neither was it the answer someone of his status should give to one of his subordinates, so he chose to stay silent.

Danzo ambled closer, the long shadow always behind him. "You must see the potential of this discovery," he insisted.

He did. For two decades, he'd sent Uchiha and Hyuuga to Uzushiogakure in search for an Uzumaki with the unique chakra the Princess had, and now two had fallen in his lap. If Kushina could not hold the Kyuubi, the other had to, or everyone he was responsible for, his family, would die. It would be better to be prepared in case the worst happened. And yet it still felt personal to Hiruzen.

What would the First say if he knew the children of his wife's clan would be used like this? Like pieces he could use and throw out as he saw fit? What would the Princess say?

"Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure," Danzo spoke. "All have two tailed beasts to use against us. The container of the nine-tails, no matter how strong, would fall if our enemies decided to attack us with both of their weapons at once. The second child gives us a chance to end that threat, to level the playing field."

What would Danzo consider to be too much of a sacrifice, Hiruzen wondered, for the benefit of Konoha? What did Utatane call him, back when they were all children in awe of the First and his power to grow buildings out of the dirt with only a bit of chakra and a hand-sign? She'd called him ambitious.

Ambitious enough to split the Kyuubi in half and create a second living weapon.

"We don't know if such a thing is even possible," Hiruzen said, attempting to curb his thoughts. "The risk of unleashing the beast in trying would be too great. We have the strongest tailed beast of any nation. It will have to be enough."

"If the possibility of our enemy employing such a tactic exists, then we must act to prevent it. The war can only be won if we have a counter to any, and every strategy our enemy may come up with."

Hiruzen didn't answer. How cruel must he be to even consider such an idea?

"When will another opportunity like this present itself to us, Hiruzen? How many of our people will die, if our enemies send their jinchūriki to battle?"

It would be too soon, he thought, when he chose a predecessor. Hiruzen closed his eyes. The chance of it happening was slim, but it was there. The enemy would have to be desperate to risk losing a jinchūriki on the battlefield. But it would be unexpected, and if properly trained, devastating.

"No," Hiruzen said. Too soft, indeed.

"We must get ahead of this, before it's too late to do anything at all."

"I will only consider bringing the other child to Konoha on the chance the Kyuubi escapes, but nothing else, old friend." His tone was colder, more authoritative.

Danzo paused. "As you wish, Lord Hokage," he said without emotion. He left without another word.

For a moment, Hiruzen convinced himself his old friend would leave the matter alone.

* * *

 **A/N:** The House of a Thousand Dead Suns by SassySizzleMonster

I've been gone for a while again, haven't I? On the upside, there will be another chapter in about a week from now. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Reminding myself that there are people out there who want to see this story completed is what keeps me going, seriously.


	8. Sound of the Wind

Kiunno sat with his arms around his knees, cheek resting in the crook of his arm. He watched a wave crash against the shore, sliding up along the sand until he could feel water between his toes. He glanced at a small hole in the sand, swirling with water. He wondered how the ocean felt about always leaving pieces of itself behind. The sand was already drying in the heat, the bottom of his shorts stiff and uncomfortable. Another wave swept up pieces of seaweed and seashells, but the hole was wider than before.

He heard a loud gasp behind him, followed by the sound of Fuurin tumbling down the hill. He turned slightly, watching his cousin push himself up off the ground. "You know, for someone who lazes around all the time, you're a really good climber."

Fuurin laced scraped hands behind his head and ambled over. "I've been looking everywhere for you," he said, plopping down next to him. "I went to the memorial tree, to Aunty Utsumi's house, and even to Elder Hama in case the enemy kidnapped you. What are you doing out here?"

Kiunno burrowed deeper in his arm instead of answering.

Fuurin carefully took of his sandals, shaking the sand out as he dropped them out of the ocean's reach. He dug his toes into the sand. "You're sad again, huh?"

 _Again._ Kiunno hated that. He didn't want to be known as being sad all the time. "Kushina's been gone for a week," he muttered. He didn't mention how quiet the house was without her, how Mama had been staying in her room more and more often. Papa tried to distract him with fuinjutsu practice and lessons about directing his chakra to his fingers, but it never kept the quiet away for long.

Fuurin flopped backwards. "No one tells me anything," he complained. "I didn't know she ran away.

"You saw her?"

"She's like a feral cat," Fuurin said, staring straight up. His eyebrows pinched together. "She showed up a little while ago, and Ma fed her leftovers from breakfast. She slept on my bed yesterday. Didn't even ask," he said, blowing out air. "She was sleeping when I came home and she hissed at me when I tried to push her off. She _hissed at me_."

Kiunno joined him in the sand. He felt better, knowing she was okay. He thought she wasn't coming back.

"Sorry," Fuurin said. "Didn't know you didn't know. We should make a super secret club to share secrets that the adults don't know about. It's only fair."

Did Mama and Papa know that Kushina was hiding at Aunt Narumi's?

Fuurin glanced at him, eyes wide and exaggerated.

"What?"

"I didn't know you could smile, Kiunno. It's kind of weird."

Kiunno wiped his mouth and sat up, looking away from him. "I wasn't," he grumbled. "And I'm not weird. _You're_ weird," he said.

Fuurin laughed and sat up, crossing his legs beneath him. "You know what we should do? We should skip rocks."

"Sounds dumb."

Fuurin jumped up, and Kiunno spluttered in the wake of all the sand he kicked up. "It's not. It's fun, promise." He held a fist over his heart.

Kiunno sighed loudly but stood. "You come up with the worst games."

Fuurin grinned, "Good thing it's not my game then. Tenchi and Mushio showed me." He ran down to the shoreline, gesturing for him to follow. "It's easy."

Kiunno went after him, hands in his pockets. Rocks and gravel crunched under his feet as water sloshing around his ankles.

"Okay, it's like this." Fuurin picked up a pebble. He brought it close to his face, turned it over in his palm, then dropped it. Kiunno stared as he pulled one that was rounder out of the water.

"Are we gonna play, or what?" he asked, as a third rock was dropped back into the ocean.

Fuurin cupped a fourth rock in his hands, aiming it away from him. "You can't rush this. I need one that's small and round, but flat enough to skip across the water. It has to be perfect or it won't work."

Kiunno picked up a rock at random, idly tossing it up and down as he waited.

"He doesn't understand," Fuurin whispered to the rock. "Such a simple mind, no wonder I thought the enemy kidnapped him."

Kiunno narrowed his eyes and chucked the rock at him.

Fuurin yelped as it struck his side, limping away from him. "You broke something," he gasped. "My spleen is broken."

"I'm going home."

"Wait!" Fuurin grabbed his arm as he turned away. "Fine, _fine._ This defective rock will have to do. If I miss, it'll be your fault."

"Oh, whatever."

Fuurin stepped deeper into the shallows, squinting as he wound his arm back. He stuck his tongue out, nodding. He threw the rock. It hit the surface and went straight down.

"Was that supposed to happen?"

"No, shut up! Do-over!" Fuurin dropped down and dug around in the gravel, muttering to himself.

Kiunno picked a dark orange and white sea shell out of the water that he thought Kushina would like and put it in his pocket for safekeeping.

"Okay, I'm ready for real this time." Fuurin took a step back and tossed the rock. It bounced twice before sinking. He beamed. "That's how you're supposed to do it."

"Just twice?"

Fuurin scratched the back of his neck, shrugging. "Doesn't have to be. As many times you can get it to bounce."

Kiunno aimed.

"No, not like that," Fuurin said. "You have to hold your hand more sideways-y. It won't bounce it you throw it."

Kiunno adjusted his hand. "Like this?"

Fuurin rubbed his chin. "Better. You just gotta give it a light touch. Imagine you're holding a baby bird-"

"I get it," Kiunno grumbled. He tossed the rock. It sank.

Fuurin nodded, still rubbing his chin. "Good effort. Just a little less _poosh_ and a little more _shhipp._ "

Kiunno picked up another rock. "Those aren't real words," he deadpanned.

"Uh-huh they are. You're throwing like _poosh._ " He demonstrated by throwing the rock as hard as he could. "When you gotta throw like _shhipp_." A second rock was tossed more gently, bouncing once.

"Why didn't you just say that?"

Fuurin blinked at him. "I did."

Kiunno sighed. He mimicked him, but the rock did not bounce.

"Just, like this." Fuurin waved his arms.

Kiunno had no words.

"Relax your arms. Be a jellyfish."

Kiunno raised an eyebrow. "That's a jellyfish?"

Fuurin stared at his hands. "It isn't?"

Kiunno decided to ignore him. He focused on the spot he wanted the rock to bounce off, then tossed it sideways-y. _Plip. Plip._

"Yeah! See, like a jellyfish." He waved his arms again, wiggling his fingers for added effect.

Kiunno stared at him. Then, "Whoever throws the farthest has to do the other's homework," he said suddenly, scooping up a handful as Fuurin gaped at him.

"Wait, that's not fair! I don't even know _how_ to do your homework!"

.

.

.

"I give up. My arm is tired," Kiunno said, plopping down in the sand.

Fuurin paused in the middle of massaging his wrist, "Wait, were you counting?"

A few beats passed. Kiunno sighed.

"You came up with this and you weren't counting?"

"You're better at math. You should've kept track," Kiunno shot back at him.

Fuurin spluttered, "How are we supposed to know who won?"

Kiunno thought it over, then shook his head. "Forget it. Let's just go back."

* * *

Souta slipped his shoes off at the top of the stairs, nudging them closer to the wall with his foot. He could see the mud caking the sides, the bits of red dried onto the heels. He felt queasy, like he'd eaten something that his stomach didn't like, but wasn't bad enough to make him throw up. He hadn't eaten anything, but still had the lingering sense that something was wrong, that his body didn't quite belong to him.

He lingered in the hallway. Only a few feet forward and it would branch open. The joined kitchen and living room to his left, bed rooms to the right. His room. He needed to change. His flak jacket still smelled like blood.

He wondered if his brother was home. The shop was closed, some distant part of Souta thought. The part that was still tethered to the island, and not the one holding a kunai, slashing open a Kiri-nin's throat. He knew it hadn't been closed for long, because there had been a customer standing in the middle of the room when he ducked under the curtain, peering around in confusion.

Souta vaguely remembered a voice that sounded suspiciously like his own telling the customer to come back the next day, that his order would be half off for his trouble. Had he walked the customer out and flipped the open sign to closed, or had he gone upstairs without waiting for an answer? He couldn't remember.

Maybe he would tomorrow, when he felt more like himself. Souta padded to his room. The door was closed because for all Ma's bolstering and tendency to encourage mischief, she wouldn't be able to open it if he didn't come back.

He changed into something more casual, something loose-fitting that didn't make him feel battle-ready. He left his uniform in a heap on the floor. Maybe tomorrow, he thought.

He went to Fuu's room next. He knocked on the doorframe, waited a few seconds, then went inside. It was the same as he left it, except for Kushina spread out on the bed, a pillow under her legs and the sheets bunched up in the corner. Souta blinked. _Why—_ He thought of the Kiri-nin he'd killed, how he could've mistaken her for being asleep before he scrawled an explosive seal on her arm and watched flames consume her body.

Souta backed out of the room. He pulled the collar of his shirt up over his nose and breathed in mildew and cotton until he couldn't smell burned flesh. He only yanked it back down as he poked his head in the living room. Ma and Pa were sitting in front of a table, papers and a map spread out over it.

He waved. "Hey Ma, Pa. I'm back."

Ma jerked her head up so fast he winced. She was on him in an instant, looking and prodding him for injuries. She was shorter than him, but that didn't seem to deter her.

"Ah, I'm fine," he insisted.

She swatted his stomach, rolling her eyes. "You're as stubborn as that one is," she hooked a thumb at Pa, whose leg was in a splint and propped up on a pillow. " _I'm fine,_ say all the pigheaded men in this house, then they collapse at my feet with broken bones. How fortunate it was, that his leg decided to end his stubbornness for him on Elder Hama's porch." Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

She shook her head, squeezing his arms. "You'd never be such a fool, would you?"

Souta smiled a little. "No, Ma. Never."

She nodded, then slapped his back so hard he stumbled forward. "Course not." She turned to Pa, hands on her hips. "Unlike your complete fool of a Pa."

Pa shook his head. "How long are you going to hold that over me, Narumi?"

She threw up her hands. "In front of _Elder Hama,_ of all people. Why not just toss us in the sea and feed us to the Lampreys while you're at it?" She stalked off to the kitchen.

Pa looked amused as he watched her leave, then nodded at him. "Take a seat, Souta."

He did. "In front of _Elder Hama_?" he repeated in mock outrage.

Pa didn't immediately answer, his gaze on the table. "Report, Souta."

Souta's smile faded. His stomach twisted into knots. "My team reached the site of the breach at five yesterday. We found a slain squad of Kumogakure shinobi on the beach. We couldn't be sure of how many of them there were. Two of them were in pieces, and it became clear that we interrupted a squad from Kirigakure as they were disposing the bodies. They attempted to take us by surprise, but there wasn't enough time between them noticing us and our arrival for them to find proper hiding places and cover the tracks they left behind."

Souta could still see the blood pooling under his feet. She'd still been warm when he stripped her of her weapons. She wasn't his first kill. That didn't make it any easier. "We dispatched them quickly but found no useful information from their bodies. I searched the area for others waiting to ambush us, but only found stray weapons and corpses."

"And the seal?" Pa asked.

"Commander Irusei took care of it while we secured the area. The border alarms will remain active until the next attack."

"Until the next attack," Pa repeated with a shake of his head, picking up a file. "I never thought I'd live long enough to see war again."

"If I knew you were coming back so soon, I would've kept the shop open," Ma said. "At least long enough to celebrate."

A small, ridged cup was put down in front of Souta. He stared at the yellow-brown surface, watching steam drift in the air. Lemon, the tether supplied. He sniffed. It smelled thick and metallic, like old blood.

He couldn't drink it, but he cupped it between his hands and let the warmth spread up his fingers, grounding him. "Where's Fuu?"

"That impulsive boy," Ma said with a sigh. "He was supposed to help out today, but instead he ran off this morning to find Ki."

"Wonder who that came from," Pa murmured.

Ma laughed, "Better impulsive than a stubborn mule."

Pa ignored her, "There's something else, Souta." He picked up a folded, wrinkled note and put it on his side of the table. "Two months ago, your Aunt found a message warning of an attack on the island. The author and intent are unknown."

Souta was stuck on those six words at the top of the note, written in a hasty scrawl.

 _Uzushiogakure is going to be destroyed._

He heard a soft crack and Ma gasped, his parents racing to salvage the papers as amber liquid dribbled onto the table. Souta looked at the cracked cup and the tea on his fingers.

"When?" he asked.

"Within the next eight to ten months," Pa said.

Souta stared at him, wide-eyed. In eight to ten months, one of their enemies would stage an attack strong enough to level Uzushiogakure.

Ma stood and quietly took the remains of the cup, clearing away the broken ceramic.

"That's when Kushina leaves?"

"Is expected to, yes," Pa said.

Souta leaned both elbows against the table and pressed his palms against his eyes. His head was throbbing. He wanted to stand and leave, push the rest of the conversation off until tomorrow when he felt more like himself, but he couldn't. This was too urgent to ignore.

"How many people know?"

"Your Aunt and Uncle, Elder Hama, and the jonin commanders from each clan."

"What can I do?"

"You can protect Fuu."

Souta looked at him.

"I and the other commanders have already started bolstering our defenses for an attack from Kirigakure or Kumogakure. The barrier seals on the island are too complex and dangerous for you to work on, Souta. If the island is attacked, I want you to keep your brother safe."

Souta was a jonin, but it still wasn't enough. He grimaced. "Who do we think it came from?"

"An Uzumaki," Pa said with certainty. "A spy who, most likely. One selling our secrets to our enemies but doesn't want to see us destroyed."

"An Uzumaki," Souta repeated. It didn't seem believable that there was a traitor among them. But what else could explain how they knew when the attack would happen?

"No one can know that Kirigakure managed to break a second exterior barrier seal, Souta. Not even your Aunt. This will only put strain on her that she doesn't need at a time like this."

"Did something happen?" Souta asked, glancing up.

"You can't keep a secret to save your life, can you, Shoto?" Ma asked, standing over the table. She looked exasperated. "She wanted to tell everyone herself, you know."

Pa blinked at her.

"In a few months you'll have another little cousin to look out for, Souta," she said, hands on her hips. She glared at Pa.

Souta nodded once, twice. He laid both arms against the edge of the table, leaned down and fell asleep.

* * *

 **A/N** : Rising With The Breaking Dawn by fleeting . white . feathers


End file.
